Office for Provider Advancement
At Optum, we’re making Optum Health the best place to work for physicians and clinicians to serve our patients and their communities.
Delivering the best care possible to our patients
The Office for Provider Advancement (OPA) focuses on making Optum the best place to work for the entire care team. Through clinical governance, we are transcending our businesses to create a culture of one purpose, one system, one brand and one Optum.
Health outcomes research
The Optum Center for Research and Innovation (OCRI) implements and publishes research and innovation projects with training courses and platforms.
Experience
Our experience initiatives strive to impact and improve culture, provider experience and patient experience across the continuum of care.
Partnership
Through leadership and partnership programs, the Office for Provider Advancement rewards, recognizes and supports physicians and clinicians.
Health equity
The health equity pillar works on closing disparities and increasing inclusive care, products and services.
Health outcomes research
Support and promote clinical research
The Optum Center for Research and Innovation (OCRI) implements and publishes research and innovation projects with training courses and platforms.
C. Todd Staub, MD, FACP It's really important that we in Optum have OCRI, that we have a research unit that is closely tied to care delivery. We're building a new kind of delivery system across the entire country, something that's, a new system that no one has ever tried to do before.
Ken Cohen, MD, FACP The OCRI was developed specifically so that we could conduct research throughout Optum Health. And the forms of research that we are conducting go across the research spectrum.
Alexa Richie, DHSc The advantage to research for our patients is the ability to participate in changing healthcare for the future and making the system better, but in also access to treatments that they otherwise may not have the ability to get.
Shanieek Lawrence, PhD There are various resources that we draw on as we support the local markets that are looking to engage in research. We have regulatory support, we have data support, but we also have launched our education series.
Evelyn Gay, MPA: The regulatory support that's available to the physicians is a means to start their research. OCRI's role for oversight for the local markets is to provide SOPs that they would need to run a successful research study. And we're also there to walk them through the beginning and the end of that study.
Christine Chaisson We have some really incredible data assets. We have a longitudinal deidentified claims database with over 200 million lives in it of Medicare Advantage and commercially insured beneficiaries. We can look at total cost of care, we can look at cost of pharmacy care, we can look at medical costs. The possibilities of what we can, what we can do with that data are endless.
Gwen Carangi CCRC Clinical research impacts providers and patients in a very positive way in that we can give the providers an opportunity to offer their patients an option of participating in a clinical trial, and those patients may possibly benefit from participating in that trial, in improving their health and also getting the opportunity to advance medicine.
Ashley Alexander Here in Houston, as a city that has been built off of very strong academic institutions, Kelsey and Kelsey Research Foundation are now taking research into the community and making it more accessible to all the patients of Kelsey. Houston is a beautifully diverse city and our chance to incorporate that diversity into our research portfolio is something that I think is very important to the future of research and the future of healthcare.
Kisha Horan: It's crucial that we do research. We won't improve as a healthcare system without it. Research is what sets us apart from other healthcare systems, and it really gives the patients the comfort and confidence that they need to feel connected to us.
C. Todd Staub, MD, FACP I think OCRI and research can help us, define who we are. We are curious, we want to know, we don't have all the answers. We want to a learning healthsystem.
Shanieek Lawrence, PhD Our goal really is to support, promote, and expand research activities across our network, getting clinicians the resources that are needed to benefit the patients that we serve.
Ken Cohen, MD, FACP By the nature of what we do, we are all researchers. And by engaging with a formal research process, we will drive improved patient outcomes at the same time we actually improve the experience of our day-to-day practice.
Experience
Focused on patient and provider experience
The experience pillar is focused on supporting our physicians and providers holistically, fostering a culture that delivers the best possible experience and care for our patients.
Hello, I'm Dr. Carl Allen and Culture facilitator. I want to introduce the five tenets of patient experience, but first, allow me to remind you of our U H G and Optum mission statement and cultural values. Our mission is to help people to healthier lives and to help make the health system work better for everyone. The five tenets are in alignment with our cultural values. The five tenets of patient experience are no mean, compassionate, simple, trusted, and warm and welcoming. Know me aligns with relationships. We define Know me as taking the time to learn your story values and what you care about. We understand we cannot achieve our goals alone. We build trust through knowing our patients. We may start by greeting patient by their first names. Be mindful of information communicated in daily huddles regarding transportation, fears, values, mobility, medical history, and food security. Compassionate aligns with compassion. We define compassion as listening and acting on what I know about you with empathy. Remember, empathy is the feeling and compassion is the action. We walk in the shoes of people we serve and with whom we work. So let's make eye contact and start with how are you versus why are you here? We take action to reassure patients while they're waiting and keeping them informed. Simple. Align with innovation. We define simple as a commitment to respect your time and simplify your care path to health.
We learn from our experience and evolve to serve everyone fairly productive and consistently. Because we know you, we can help where and when you need it most. For example, we should consider using online scheduling navigators, text appointment, wifi, and device chargers. Trusted aligns with integrity and performance. Trust in the providers and the system. We do what we say. We believe in the reliability and ability of our healthcare professionals. We are a commitment and never compromise. Our integrity, we deliver on our promises, is the ultimate measure of trust. We provide excellence in everything we do. So if healthcare professionals, we'll practice evidence-based medicine in a simple language and avoiding unnecessary tests. Warm and welcoming aligns with compassion. We define warm and welcoming as treating you like family because we know you and value you. In addition, we'll actively listen to understand and empathize with people's reality. We'll make decision with patients based on their values and our best judgment. Optum Lounge and Clinics will feel comfortable and have the basic amenities serving patient and their caretakers. So let's continue to live our mission and cultural values while implementing the five tenets of patient experience of know me, compassionate, simple, trusted, and warm, and welcoming. I'm Dr. Carl Allen, culture facilitator.
Partnership
Developing and recognizing our providers
The partnership pillar offers programs designed to support the clinician experience through recognition and development opportunities.
Optum OPF23 Sizzle Final Transcript Welcome to the Optum Health Partnership Forum. Fantastic. Full house. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn about our vision and our creation of the next generation of healthcare system. We have a vision to help make Optum Health the destination of choice. How important is quality, safety, and high reliability to our organization? How do we move the country to value? How do we move the country to decrease the total cost of care? What's the biggest barrier to being more innovative and creative where you work? Diversity is innovation. If somebody doesn't look like you, they don't think like you, and if they don't think like you, they can help you think differently. \What if we during our time could leave a legacy of unparalleled, high-value care, high reliability, and zero harm for millions of patients? The general sessions are fantastic, but then to break down into smaller groups and go into your own special interests and really collaborate with those folks, and you realize, oh wow, we're not the only ones that are going through this. Or, hey, they're doing something really well. Let's adapt it. I think the scope and scale and the level of participation was really quite surprising. I felt like Beyoncé this year. There was a red carpet. There was champagne. There was fancy chocolate. In addition, I learned a new line dance. I'll be talking about the goal of becoming the APC employer of choice. My ask of all of you is for us to partner so that we can reimagine healthcare together. We have to invest in specific things like partnership to make sure that we have the best and the brightest clinicians that are engaging with our patients every day. I've been to other conferences before, but this is just blows all that out of the water. I'm here to learn, here to connect, here to network, and everything has been amazing. It's just such an energy shot that people need. Some of the most valuable experiences I've had at the forum are the unscripted and impromptu conversations. I think my strongest memories are talking one-on-one with people. You get to know so many things about people on a personal level. Optum OPF23 Sizzle Final Transcript I think this is the best acknowledgement of the work we do as providers. She is the epitome of compassion and truly embodies the type of physician that we all aspire to be. Thank you to my patients first, their family, their caregivers. Wow, what an honor. Thank you, Dr. Gaia, for your nomination. Unbelievably appreciated. Go Optum Washington. We rock. Today's challenges bring us opportunities to relentlessly focus on how we deliver high-quality, compassionate, effective, affordable care. We are here because we care. We care about our patients, our community, and each other. We are the national leaders of value-based care. Our opportunity is to reimagine healthcare together.
Health equity
Equitable access to health care
The health equity pillar advances health equity initiatives aimed at reducing health disparities and increasing inclusive care, products and services to our patients and the communities we serve.
IEN Optum Health Equity Downtown LA Clinic – English
Narrator:
To be in LA is to be embraced by diversity. People you meet come from 140 countries. They speak 224 languages. Optum is working to fit health care to each one.
Dr. Jaime Ramos:
It's delivered better if it can be done in a language that they understand, in a context that takes in account where they live, the culture that they tend to ascribe to.
Narrator:
By giving everyone the chance to live their healthiest life, we’re elevating patient experience.
Ramos:
Their experience at a visit with a clinician starts at where they parked their car and ends when they leave. It starts with just general communication of the building itself.
Dr. Leslie May Ramirez:
Optum engages them by the moment they walk through the door. They will not have to speak a word of English or attempt to speak a word of English.
Narrator:
There are so many signs of welcome.
Dr Kate Shieh-Maynard:
Having a physician or a clinician who actually speaks your native tongue is so important, because there are so many nuances to language that you miss with translation.
Ramirez:
Not just the doctors themselves, but the ancillary staff here are really helpful in providing that care and feeling that ease right away.
Ramos:
You receive patients who have had a history of experiences. When you engage them, especially when it's a language interaction, they feel like that, "Hey, finally. Finally, someone is listening to me."
Narrator:
We’re not just listening. We’re hearing.
Shieh:
And also understanding the cultural background of the patient, that's important too.
Narrator:
At Optum Health Equity is purposeful.
Shieh:
I always try to stress the importance of finding a candidate or a physician from backgrounds similar to the community they will serve, just because that will start them out on the right foot with the same cultural background and understanding.
Ramos:
A lot of our providers here in Optum who choose to work in these spaces have that strong mission, desire to help people.
Ramos:
I have gone far and wide to search for these culturally competent clinicians I'm looking for. And the farthest I've gone was through a program that was sponsored by Optum to go to other locations. In this case was in Puerto Rico. It shows what level Optum is willing to commit to find clinicians.
Narrator:
It’s not just who we are. It’s where we are.
Ramirez:
Being here in a downtown, we're right here, and we're like a one stop shop. Here, they get their labs done right in the same room. Here, they can go downstairs, schedule their screening mammogram and kind of get the things that they need.
Shieh:
Some patients cannot afford all the medicines they may need, and we try to help them with that.
Ramirez:
We try to offer transport or find out if their insurance can help us with transport.
Shieh:
Social programs, that's something that our group offers, but sometimes patients are unaware of it or sometimes they're not trusting of it. So I think that's when it's my responsibility to really explain. And, to really build that trust and bridge that trust from our own relationship. So they’re not missing out compared to other patients who are open to that type of service.
Ramos:
Food insecurity, health, literacy, these are things that are unique to us here yet. We still have providers who are willing to do that to meet that challenge, but also deliver solid care.
Narrator
Our patients are seeing a difference.
Ramos
We survey them and after their visits; a constant theme that comes up was that my doctor listens to me. My doctor understands me. My doctor cares about me. And when you hear those encounters and they're done in Spanish or in the language that they're comfortable with – Korean, Mandarin-speaking, Tagalog, those themes come through. And that also means that we truly hit the right mark.
Shieh:
I want to make sure that every single patient that comes to see me feels like the most important patient at that moment, the most important person at that moment, and that's what all our doctors try to provide.
Ramos:
I think Optum has made it possible by just being here, by just showing up and making a commitment where other places have historically ignored.